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Mon 2 Jun, 2003 10:06 pm
The definition of the word "cheek" above means:
(1) The fleshy part of either side of the face below the eye and between the nose and ear.
(2) Either of the buttocks.
Which one is correct? There is some dictionary indicating the "tongue-in-cheek" mean "jokingly or not seriously", but I dunno the correct definition of the "cheek".
Would you like to introduce the origin of "tounge-in-cheek" a bit? Thanks.
The cheek in question is the mouth one. I don't know what a tounge is.
If you would like to find the origin of the expression, check out the following thread on etymology.
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7562
Or was your question exactly what the title suggests?
Some comments are difficult to make--or to reply to--with a straight face. By putting your tongue in your cheek you can short-circuit the impulse for inappropriate giggles.
Laughter may be inappropriate because of the serious nature of the occasion or because premature laughter would spoil the joke.
Bite your tongue! was an admonishment I got a lot as a child.
The English language has a lot more uses for "cheeks" than the two you have quoted, many of them specialist or archaic usages, and all deriving from "cheeks" as part of the face.
I think the useage "cheeks of the arse" is fairly modern in origin, and jocular.
A very popular DJ for the legendarily popular radio station, WLS in Chicago, was fired in the 1960's, for saying on the air:
If miniskirts get any shorter, women will have more hair to style, and two more cheeks to powder . . .
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